Nearly 50 years ago, Theodore White wrote a book, The Making of the President, that changed how campaigns are covered. Now Mark Halperin and John Heilemann have revolutionized the genre again with Game Change – in a way that says a lot about today’s politics, communications and culture. White told the inside story…
Governor Perdue this week at the ribbon-cutting for a “green” McDonald’s in Cary: “I love McDonald’s. I eat here all the time, as you can see from my butt.”
A reader says my blog about Governor Perdue and Treasurer Janet Cowell “is a misread.” Here is the reader’s take on Cowell – and her battle with Perdue and DOT over Charlotte loop funding: “She’s a straight shooter, Gary, as close to pure and simple as you’ll find at that level of political…
You’d think Governor Perdue had enough problems with Republicans. But two of the biggest obstacles in her first year have been Democrats – Council of State members. This is nothing new. All Governors get to where they want to call a constitutional convention to abolish the Council of State. The conflict is inherent…
My friend down in Columbia, Chris Neely, is a captain in the ‘Swamp Fox’ Field Artillery of the South Carolina National Guard. And he just got called up. My first thought – other than the obvious concern about danger – when he told me he’s going to be spending the next year in…
As the N&O noted this morning, excerpts from the book Game Change have tarnished Elizabeth Edwards’ halo. People have been reluctant to criticize Elizabeth. She lost a son. She is battling cancer. And she suffered the public humiliation of her husband’s infidelity. But she long had a reputation for being startlingly harsh with people,…
The new revelations about John Edwards’ 2008 campaign – from the book Game Change by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin – raise this question: Didn’t he learn anything in his Senate race? When Edwards ran in 1998 – and I was one of his strategists – we struggled with how to handle the firestorm…
It’s hard to get your arms around but Bev Perdue has surpassed Hunt when it comes to taking stands on both sides of issues. Our Governor’s taken firm stands on both sides of spending cuts. Tax increases. Offshore drilling. Negative political ads. And now – oddly enough – adultery. It seems our State Highway…
Is everybody in state government crooked? No, they’re not. But the average person might think so when – in one skinny issue of the paper – they see ABC boards investigated, the ex-DMV director accused of wiretapping and the State Highway Patrol questioned about missing records and sexual misconduct. Does this ever end?…
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